Crime seekers

I see that there was a visitor to this site from someone searching for the words: mystery, readers, blog. Sadly, the posting this person read was about an unknown visitor to this site, not recommendations for would be readers of mysteries. Since the URL for this site is a reference to detective fiction, I suppose I should have a post about my preferences.

I've not read much in the way of recent mystery authors. I started with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of Sherlock Holmes. Good fun. I went on to read Agatha Christie.

My life was changed (literally) when I was introduced to Raymond Chandler (who wrote seven novels about his hero, Philip Marlowe). I went to grad school (for my M.A.) in England, where they consider Chandler to be an important American author (on par with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Steinbeck, etc.). I think that The Big Sleep is the best place to start, though I consider The Long Goodbye to be Chandler's best. I also recommend The Lady in the Lake and Farewell, My Lovely.

After Chandler, I read the works of Dashiell Hammett. I recommend The Maltese Falcon, Red Harvest, and The Glass Key. The Thin Man is also good fun.

Next, I completed the hard-boiled triumvirate by reading James M. Cain. Read Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cain differs from Chandler and Hammett by writing from the perspective of the criminal (rather than the detective). Good fun, though it makes me feel . . . dirty. It is said that Albert Camus based his great novel L'Étranger upon Postman.

If one feels the need to read more roman noir, then read Ross Macdonald.